


The Writing Contest

by JJ20, NewEnglandBoi



Category: Edelweiss (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, Second Edelweiss Fic!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 01:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19262914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJ20/pseuds/JJ20, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewEnglandBoi/pseuds/NewEnglandBoi
Summary: Yuki Iwasaki is astonished at the Syndicalist Propaganda in some of the short stories that were submitted to her school's writing contest, but one short especially shocks her.





	The Writing Contest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NewEnglandBoi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewEnglandBoi/gifts).



Yuki stared down at the article in disbelief. There was no way that such a piece of literary… literary garbage won the contest. The judges had 10 other finalist works to pick from, and they picked… that. “The Sun Over Nihon” was a short story written by an “Anonymous” author, but she knew who wrote it, or at least what group of people wrote it. It had to be those damned syndies… always conspiring. Only those socialist slime would write a story about the great, unwavering Empire of Japan falling to the British.  
After the release of “Furherreich: Legacy of the Great War,” the School Events Committee decided to hold a writing contest. The theme of it was “Alternative History.” Most of them revolved around different outcomes in the Weltkrieg, such as what if The Gallipoli Invasion was successful, a few other ones focused around a few more, obscure events, such as what if the Roman Empire invaded Germania, and what if the Whiskey Rebellion led to a civil war in America, and some were… out there, and obviously jokes, such as what if Chile had an empire, in which it takes over the entire coast of the world. Yuki was personally hopeful that the scenario based around if the Tokugawa clan never took over Japan, won, but that was her opinion.  
So many good contenders, and they chose… that. However, despite how obviously bad it was, everyone hailed it as a great piece of fiction. Of course she never actually read the story, but she had a good reason. Well maybe not a great reason, but… well. Yuki tried everything in her mind to justify not reading the story, but, she just couldn’t. She was so curious, what if it really was good. She swallowed down her pride, if only for just a moment, and opened to page five.  
The short opened with “Tokugawa Ieyasu looked over at the British Soldiers occupying the courtyard of his palace, raising the flag of the British East Asia Corporation. Gunshots were heard in the distance as the final batches of Japanese resistance were being crushed around Honshu. British soldiers burst through the palace and without a moment's notice, shot the Shogun through the abdomen.” It was a strong opening, and evoked a lot of emotio--. Yuki stopped that thought in her head, she could not let these lies overpower her perfect judgement. She continued reading “The last bouts of resistance on Shikoku and Hokkaido were being crushed. The British government expected a long, drawn out conflict with the well armed and well trained Japanese, and that's just what they got. At least in the first few months. After around three months of fighting, many started to believe that the British brought hope of restoring the Emperor to his true power, above the Shogun. When the first few defectors came in, the British decided to run with this, and promised that the Emperor Meiji would be restored to the throne under British rule.” That was silly, she thought, as Emperor Meiji would still be a child when this took place. However as she thought about it, she realized that that would make sense for the British, as a child can’t rule a country. “Many Samurai defected to the British side after that declaration, and so the invasion afterwards was swift, and devastating.”  
She thought about it for a second, if the British were going to restore the true emperor, than maybe this wouldn't be so bad, after all Meiji annexed Korea, and was the father of Emperor Taisho, the one who brought Manchuria under Japanese control. “The British kept to their promise, and let Emperor Meiji “lead” the Empire of Japan, now a puppet of the British Empire. It was really controlled by the British East Asia Corporation, who controlled all exports in and out of the Japanese Islands. They also mostly controlled the internal politics. Emperor Meiji grew up under British influence, and, when he was coronated emperor, handed even more power to the British.” Yuki gasped, there was no way Emperor Meiji would betray his people like that. Why would he, how could he. She kept reading, hoping to find some retraction of this statement. “Despite this, he still wanted to grow the Japanese Empire, for the sake of the British.” Yuki grumbled at that last comment. “He suggested plans to invade Korea. The British-Korean war was short, and Korea was quickly brought into the E.A.C.” Yuki smiled, at least something was gotten right. “After a few decades of general peace, Emperor Meiji died, and left the throne to his eldest son, Emperor Taisho. Emperor Taisho would continue to push through mandates to the Crown to gain more influence in east Asia. The most important one would be the Manchurian Mandate, where Brittain used the instability in China to massively increase their influence, and invade Manchuria. Manchuria would be added to the Japanese Empire, and the E.A.C.” Hmm, maybe this scenario wasn’t so bad, it did seem that Japan was still expanding. She still didn’t like the fact that Japan was under British influence, however. She continued reading the history, but the story really picked up once the Weltkrieg ended. The story said the Weltkrieg ended just the same, however Japan descended into civil war. “A fight broke out between British Loyalists, to the Government in Canada, and the Meiji Restorationists, a group of people looking to restore the Japanese Throne to its True Power, and Kick out the British. Emperor Hirohito was behind the Restorationists, as he wanted Japan to have more autonomy from England.” Yuki felt happy. The story was finally getting something right. The Great Japanese Empire would rise and break from British dominance. It gave her enough motivation to at least keep reading.  
“Yumi Ishikawa was the daughter of one of the Samurai Clans that joined with the British in the Invasion.” Yuki read past that sentence, and did a double take. That… sounded an awful lot like her name. It… it couldn't be. She decided to read on. “She came from a rich family. They had made their money by joining the British, and escalating to the high echelons of the government in the E.A.C. Her family ran the factories in and around Japan.” There was no denying it anymore. Yuki was shocked. I mean, she thought her familial history was relatively unknown, at least to anyone at the school. She thought… who knew. Nobody, except… no. It couldn’t be, there was no way she would write something like this.


End file.
